Obama disputes recess appointment ruling

last updated 8 January 2015

The Obama administration announced this week that it would ask the Supreme Court to settle its dispute with Republican senators over recess appointments. An appeals court ruled in January that the president violated the Constitution by appointing three members of the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate was out of town. The court said the president’s right to fill vacancies applies only during breaks between formal sessions of Congress, and that a post must become vacant during a recess for any new appointment to it to be valid. The Obama administration contends that ruling effectively invalidates 285 presidential appointments made since 1867.